1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods of operating electrical corona discharge devices and in particular to methods of fluid acceleration to provide velocity and momentum to a fluid, especially to air, through the use of ions and electrical fields.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art as described in a number of patents (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,210,847 of Spurgin and 4,231,766 of Shannon, et al.) has recognized that the corona discharge device may be used to generate ions and accelerate fluids. Such methods are widely used in electrostatic precipitators and electric wind machines as described in Applied Electrostatic Precipitation published by Chapman & Hall (1997). The corona discharge device may be generated by application of a high voltage to pairs of electrodes, e.g., a corona discharge electrode and an attractor electrode. The electrodes should be configured and arranged to produce a non-uniform electric field generation, the corona electrodes typically having sharp edges or otherwise being small in size.
To start and sustain the corona discharge device, high voltage should be applied between the pair of electrodes, e.g., the corona discharge electrode and a nearby attractor (also termed collector) electrode. At least one electrode, i.e., the corona discharge electrode, should be physically small or include sharp points or edges to provide a suitable electric field gradient in the vicinity of the electrode. There are several known configurations used to apply voltage between the electrodes to efficiently generate the requisite electric field for ion production. U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,801 of Lee and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,152,146 and 6,176,977 of Taylor, et al., describe applying a pulsed voltage waveform across pairs of the electrodes, the waveform having a duty cycle between 10% and 100%. These patents describe that such voltage generation decreases ozone generation by the resultant corona discharge device in comparison to application of a steady-state, D.C. power. Regardless of actual benefit of such voltage generation for reducing ozone production, air flow generation is substantially decreased by using a duty cycle less than 100%, while the resultant pulsating air flow is considered unpleasant.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,539 of Sherman, et al. describes use of a high frequency high voltage power supply to generate an alternating voltage with a frequency of about 20 kHz. Such high frequency high voltage generation requires a bulky, relatively expensive power supply typically incurring high energy losses. U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,135 of Weinberg describes a high voltage power supply that generates very narrow (i.e., steep, short duration) voltage pulses. Such voltage generation can generate only relatively low volume and rate air flow and is not suitable for the acceleration or movement of high air flows.
All of the above technical solutions focus on specific voltage waveform generation. Accordingly, a need exists for a system for and method of optimizing ion induced fluid acceleration taking into consideration all components and acceleration steps.